Subways grow like Slime Mould

[Ameecher]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18072627

Interesting if nothing else.

[Kevo00]

I'm sure Patrick Geddes would approve, since he was so keen on the city as an ecosystem!

[EXTspotter]

Surely this application as with any application of network science (studying networks and connections within a network mathematically), almost everything would grow in the same way, be it a transport network, neuronal networks in the brain, social networks (see my F network on facebook or the 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon) or a natural form like a slime mould colony in its associated form or a bacterial biofilm.

I know that using wikipedia as a source is frowned upon, however giving an example from it from a study is sufficient for now (I've been revising all day and I don't want to see another harvard reference ever again).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slime_mould#Behavior

Atsushi Tero of Hokkaido University grew the slime mold Physarum polycephalum in a flat wet dish. Around its initial position representing Tokyo, he placed oat flakes corresponding to the locations of other major cities in the Greater Tokyo Area. As Physarum avoids bright light, light was used to simulate mountains, water and other obstacles. The mold first densely filled the space with plasmodia, then thinned the network to focus on efficiently-connected branches. The network strikingly resembled Tokyo's rail system.[11]

[FooBar]

I don't think the slime mould has a Circle Line as the London Tube
(or what's left of the Circle line now that they've ruined it)

[EXTspotter]

Sideways 9 line?

[Railwaymodeler]

Did anyone else glance quickly at the topic title and think of the scene in Ghostbusters II when they discover the old pneumatic subway tunnel filled with pink slime?

[Dave]

Did anyone else glance quickly at the topic title and think of the scene in Ghostbusters II when they discover the old pneumatic subway tunnel filled with pink slime?

Yes haha.